A bridge lined with ornate statues overlooks an Olympic open water course like no other. The Eiffel Tower, gold-domed Invalides and other Paris landmarks provide a stunning backdrop. Yet there was no getting around concerns about the safety of swimming in the long-polluted Seine River, not to mention contending with its strong current.
A hearty group of endurance swimmers dove into the waterway on a cloudy, cool morning Wednesday, their one and only chance to check out the river before they start handing out gold medals.
The training session received the go-ahead around 4 a.m., when World Aquatics got the results of daily testing that showed the water was within acceptable guidelines for illness-causing bacteria — one day after another test run was canceled because of less-favorable readings.
From 2016 Olympic champion Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands to Irish star Daniel Wiffen, competing in open water for the first time, it appeared that most competitors took advantage of the chance to swim the actual 1.67-kilometer (1-mile) course through the center of the French capital after doing most of their training in the pool.
The women’s 10k marathon race will be held Thursday, followed by the men’s race on Friday.
“I was very happy that we could train today,” van Rouwendaal told The Associated Press, wrapped in a towel shortly after coming out of the chilly water. “We could see how the course is and where to swim and feel the current a little bit.”
The three American competitors all took part in the training session, though none put their head under the surface. They used paddle boards to get a feel for the course without taking the chance of swallowing water that might cause an illness.
“We just wanted to mitigate the risk as much as possible of the water getting inside your body,” U.S. swimmer Ivan Puskovitch told the AP. “Because even if the water is swimmable, and the levels are safe, there is still some degree of risk. And I think that it goes without saying that the risk is a little bit more significant here than most open water venues.”
Before diving in, Austrian swimmers Felix Auboeck and Jan Hercog scouted the conditions from the Pont Alexandre III, the famed bridge that overlooks the starting buoy and finishing chute.
“I think if anyone’s saying they’re not concerned at all, they’re probably lying,” Auboeck said. “I am concerned. I just hope and trust the organization in the sense that they will let us in only when it’s safe enough to do so. But, of course, you’re concerned because no one wants to get ill.”
Auboeck can certainly see the appeal of holding open water in the Seine, the river that slices through one of the world’s most picturesque cities.
“It is super exciting that this is scenery where we are racing,” he said, looking toward the Eiffel Tower. “That’s probably the best thing we can do for the sport.”
World Aquatics canceled a test run Tuesday because of concerns over fluctuating bacteria levels in the waterway. Despite massive efforts to clear the Seine, water quality has been a constant concern throughout the Games.
But officials expressed confidence that both open water races will be held without any issues, especially with the skies turning sunny in the afternoon and little chance of rain in the forecast.
“We have done the tests with the water quality and I know that’s really taken care of. It’s not just the results we want to have. It’s the real results,” said Britta Kamrau, a former open water world champion from Germany who now serves on the technical committee for World Aquatics. “I’m not afraid that the athletes will get sick.”
Though, she was quick to add, the very nature of the sport — which is held in lakes, oceans and rivers around the world — always raises concerns about the quality of the water.
“After all, it’s open water swimming,” Kamrau said. “You never have clean water like in the pool.”
Open water athletes do most of their training in the controlled conditions of a pool. Hungary’s David Betlehem said he wasn’t going in the river until the actual event and criticized organizers for pressing ahead with their plans despite the potential health risks.
“The athletes, we have no choice. You’re a little bit like a pawn,” Betlehem told the AP. “If we want to change things, we need all the athletes to say no, we don’t want to swim there. But there are some athletes who say, ‘OK, maybe we can do it.’”
This isn’t the first time questions have been raised about the safety of the water at an Olympic open water venue. There were major concerns about the sewage-filled waters off Copacabana Beach leading up to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, but the competition was held with no serious issues.
The Seine is unique in another way: This is the first time that Olympic open water, which was introduced at the 2008 Beijing Games, is being held in a river.
Previous competitions were held in the Beijing rowing basin, the Serpentine Lake in London’s Hyde Park, the ocean in Rio, and Tokyo Bay.
The Seine current has been measured at 2-3 mph, a significant challenge when swimming upstream. During the training session, some swimmers looked like they were barely moving as they struggled back toward the finish line.
“When you were going the way of the current, it was great,” van Rouwendaal. “You could swim on your back and you felt like you were super powerful. Then on the way back, you’re like, ‘Uh oh.’”
Triathlon events have already been held in the river, though the schedule was upended by the readings that are taken daily of the water quality.
Now, it’s time for open water, which at least had a backup plan in place if the Seine was determined to be unsafe. The races would be shifted to Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, site of the rowing and canoeing events.
The Seine open water course comprises a longer portion of the river than the triathlon events, starting and finishing at Pont Alexandre III. Each race is six laps.
With a few exceptions, swimming in the Seine has been prohibited since 1923 because the water has been too toxic.
Paris undertook an ambitious plan to clean up the river, with 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in infrastructure improvements that included the construction of a giant basin to capture excess rainwater and keep wastewater from flowing into the river.
Four triathletes — of the more than 100 who competed in the men’s and women’s individual races last week — became sick in the following days, though it was unclear whether the water was to blame.
Belgian triathlete Claire Michel was among those fell ill, forcing her country to withdraw from the team event. Some news outlets reported that she had been sickened by E. coli after competing in the individual event and spent several days in the hospital.
In an Instagram post Tuesday, Michel said it was a virus and not E. coli that made her sick.
